Lili Damita

Lili Damita (July 19, 1901 – March 21, 1994) was an actress.

Born Liliane-Marie-Madeleine Carré in Bordeaux, France, by age 16 she was performing in popular music-halls, eventually starring in the Revue at the Casino de Paris. Offered a role in film, in 1921 she appeared in her first French made silent film before going on to perform in films in Britain, Austria, and Germany.

She became the second wife of Hungarian born film director Michael Curtiz after appearing in three of his Austrian made films. In 1929, she went to Hollywood, making her American debut in a film titled The Rescue. Soon, she was an important star at Warner Brothers Studios, appearing with rising male stars such as Gary Cooper and James Cagney. Divorced from Curtiz, in 1935 she married a virtual unknown who would become Hollywood's biggest box office attraction, Errol Flynn with whom she had a son, Sean born in 1941. Following the marriage, she gave up her film career, taking up residence in Palm Beach, Florida. The couple divorced in 1942 and Damita eventually married Albert Loomis, a Fort Dodge, Iowa dairy owner.

During the Vietnam Conflict, her son Sean Flynn was working as a freelance photo journalist under contract to Time Magazine when he and fellow journalist Dana Stone went missing on the road south of Phnom Penh, Cambodia on April 6, 1970. Although Lili Damita spent an enormous amount of money searching for her son, he was never found and in 1984 was declared legally dead.

Lili Damita died of Alzheimer's disease in Palm Beach, Florida and was interred in the Oakland Cemetery in Fort Dodge, Iowa.